According to a statement by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), China’s monthly sales of passenger-vehicles suffered its steepest decline in more than seven years due to a Lunar New Year holiday season hiatus that deprived dealers of a week’s worth of sales. Figures indicated that sales fell to 1.16 million units in January, a 24 percent decrease from the year before. According to five analysts from Bloomberg News, sales were projected to drop 18 percent.

Great Wall Securities Co. analyst Ran Fei said, “Even though the actual holidays were five working days, some dealerships took the opportunity to close their stores for a longer time. The numbers are disappointing.” Compounding the auto sales slump in the Chinese market, the Chinese government also estimated that holiday sales at the nation’s main retailers and restaurants rose at their slowest pace since the 2009 financial crisis.

Are these signs an indication that the world’s largest and fastest growing automotive market is showing economic resistance? Despite these statistics, Ran Fei insists that “Car demand is stable. There’s no indication of any changes on that front.” China’s Passenger Car Association also believes that the Chinese economy is fundamentally sound and interprets the auto sales number as a mere holiday season distortion. The Passenger Car Association expects a 30 percent rise in sales for February.

Huatai Securities Co. analyst Chen Liang adds, “Demand is still there and consumers in the smaller, less developed cities will still have a growing need for cars. These numbers don’t change my outlook for the year.”

In January, GM reported an 8 percent decline in China sales, its first Chinese sales decline in six months. Chevrolet sales suffered a 20 percent hit to 54,399 units. According to Ford, its China sales fell a staggering 42 percent last month. Bucking the trend, Luxury German brands BMW and Audi both posted higher sales, enjoying a 30 percent and 23 percent gain respectively.

IHS Automotive Shanghai analyst Namrita Chow provided this explanation, “Prior to the Chinese New Year, Chinese consumers who are looking to enhance their prestige and status symbol have chosen high-end luxury brands.”

[Source: Bloomberg]

What better way to ring in the Chinese new year than with some special edition Aston Martins?

Available only for the Chinese market, 88 special “Dragon88″ models of the V8 Vantage S, Virage, and DBS will be made featuring some Chinese cultural references and iconography.

This news comes right after Rolls-Royce announced that their “Year of the Dragon” Phantom has sold out. It seems that those $1.2-million Phantoms were just right for the Chinese market, and here comes Aston to make a few sales of its own.

The Dragon88 models will be available in three color schemes: Champagne Gold, Volcano Red, and Amethyst Red. Each scheme representing a virtue like wealth and fortune, peace and protection, and “dragon fire.”

Inside, the cars will feature dragon embroidery inspired by the Nine Dragon Wall at Beihai park in Beijing.  Other identifying features include special 10-spoke dragon edition alloy wheels, black brake calipers and a Bang and Olufsen sound system.

Aston Martin has six dealerships in China, and believes that China will be their third biggest market, after U.S. and U.K. in just a few years.

Pricing and availability of the Dragon88 models is likely to be announced in April at the Beijing Auto Show.

[Souce: Jingdaily]

Coda CEO Phil Murtaugh knows a thing or two about the car industry and expects to be selling their cars by the end of the month.

Before taking the reigns at the Los Angeles startup, Murtaugh spent 10 years as the head of GM China. Not surprisingly, his current project takes advantage of the connections he made during that decade by sourcing most of their parts from the country.

It’s a policy that prompted some criticism, though Murtaugh said to the Detroit News that they plan to run a more U.S.-centric operation if they can secure a loan from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Loan program.

As for the car, customers can head to the company site to peruse options for the as-of-yet unnamed vehicle.

There’s lots to look at, but frankly we’re still scratching our heads a little on this one. The Coda, as it’s simply referred to on the site, can run for a 150 mile range, sure, but at $39,900 it seems like a tough sell next to the Nissan Leaf’s $35,200 tag, before tax credits.

It’s also hideous. The thing seems to take styling cues from late 90′s that are bland enough to make a Camry seem exotic.

It’s hard to look past the fact that the same cash could buy you a car that doesn’t look completely out of date.

The Coda also only has about 143 horsepower and is electronically limited to 85 mph. We wish the company luck, but it looks like they’ll need a lot more than that to push products.

[Source: Detroit News]

We have to give credit where credit is due. One thing that the Chinese automakers are clearly excelling at is perfecting the art of copying existing vehicles. The newest victim is the Ford F-150 which JAC Motors out in China has just pulled off with surprising accuracy.

Set to debut in April at the Beijing Motor Show, the JAC 4R3 looks almost identical to the Ford F-150 SuperCrew from bumper to bumper. What’s worse is that JAC is not one of Ford’s partners. What’s most humorous is that the 4R3 will be powered by a 2.8-liter diesel engine with just 108 horsepower and 177 lb-ft of torque. The 4R3 obviously won’t warrant the same heavy duty work as the F-150 and is probably lighter weight which allows it to get away with such a weak powerplant.

What’s next from the Chinese automakers? A clone of a Rolls-Royce Phantom?

GALLERY: JAC 4R3

[Source: Auto Home]

BMW is cashing in on the chauffeur craze in China by offering a stretched version of the 3-Series exclusively to Chinese customers.

The longer wheelbase sedan will be sold as a 335Li, and will offer more legroom to Chinese consumers who want to be driven around but can’t afford a legitimate chauffeur car like  Bentley or Rolls-Royce.

It might sound ridiculous that the mild-mannered 3-Series would merit a hired driver, but Audi has actually been advancing Chinese sales by offering the A6L and A4L sedans with “L” signifying the longer version.

The 335Li fits between the two Audi cars in terms of rear-seat legroom according to China Car Times. Chinese customers will be able to buy the car later this year, though it won’t be offered anywhere else in the world. That would have meant a lot of extra work on BMW’s part until recently. The German automaker will manufacture their Chinese 3-Series cars in partnership with Brilliance, a company they have worked with on several projects in the past.

[Source: China Car Times]

When GM sold 9.03 million vehicles globally to become the world’s largest automaker of 2011, a great deal of the American automaker’s success came down to its dominant popularity in the Chinese market.

According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), the best selling car in China for 2011 was the Buick Excelle. While it has been reported China sold 253,514 Excelles while only 177,633 Buick cars and SUVs were sold in the United States, confusion with Buick’s naming system revealed that the hot Buick Excelle isn’t the same as the Buick Verano sold stateside as we presumed. Oddly, the Buick line-up offers a total of three unique Excelles. Of the three, it’s the oldest generation model based on a dated Daewoo design that earned the most amount of sales. Powered by an engine designed by Holden, this particular Excelle is also known as the Kai Yue and was last given a face lift in 2008.

The second and third Chinese market Excelles are known as the Ying Lang. Using Opel Astra architecture, the hatchback Ying Lang XT and the Verano sedan variant, Ying Lang GT, only sold a combined 8,381 units during December 2011 when the older Kai Yue model sold 13,846 units in the same month.

Much of its popularity is due to its competitive pricing. At just 100,000 renminbi, or $15k USD, the Kai Yue Excelle is the gateway vehicle into China’s coveted Buick Owner’s Club.

GALLERY: Buick Excelle

[Source: China Car Times]

China is the new land of opportunity as businessmen gain newfound wealth from its booming economy. However, some have learned the hard way that money cannot buy happiness.

Last week, a Porsche owner was upset that his Cayenne SUV, worth a reported 2.7 million yuan, suffered a string of problems during the 2 months he owned it. Claiming that the serious problem nearly caused him to crash on two occasions, the Porsche dealership of Shenzhen agreed to fix the vehicle. Unfortunately, the problem inexplicably continued to resurface.

Although the Porsche dealer offered the owner to swap for another Cayenne, the owner demanded his money back instead. Eventually, the Shenzhen Porsche dealer submitted to the Cayenne owner’s demands under the condition that he sign a confidentiality agreement and to not disclose why he returned his Porsche. However, the agreement fell through and the Porsche dealership chose not to take back the lemon Cayenne after all. Taking matters into his own hands, the Cayenne owner decided to return his Cayenne on a flatbed truck and staged a loud protest right outside the dealer doors.

While the situation is certainly negative publicity, a senior executive from a premium car brand believes that incidents like this one would barely affect sales. As the Chinese economy continues to prosper, the demand for high luxury vehicles will not slow down.

Last year, a similar protest story involved a disgruntled Lamborghini Gallardo owner that hired a bunch of men to publicly destroy his defective Italian sports car on China’s World Consumer Rights Day.

[Source: China Car Times]

RUF, known for their amazing Porsche creations, looks to have beaten Porsche at creating the rumored long-wheelbase Panamera for the Chinese market.

The tuning specialist decided to take matters into their own hands, creating the Panamera XL, a 211.4-inch long Panamera aimed at the higher-end Chinese market for those who wish to be chauffeured around in true style. The Panamera’s wheelbase has been extended 15.7-inches making it 130.7-inches and the result is one comfortable business lounge for the Chinese fortunate enough to own one.

It comes at a price though, as the stretched Panamera now weighs in at an astonishing 4,321-lbs. It’s still powered by the V8 engine with 414-hp and 376 lb-ft of torque.

GALLERY: RUF Porsche Panamera XL

[Source: Carscoop]

Don’t head to the optometrist just yet. If the parking lot outside the California Pizza Kitchen and P.F. Chang’s seems particularly crowded with Mercedes-Benz SUVs, you’re probably seeing just fine.

The company had some good news to release with the new year, they managed to surpass the 2 million SUVs sales mark. According to a press release, the company enjoyed significant growth in SUV sales in 2011 thanks to the U.S. and China. SUV sales were up 24.3 percent compared to 2010 and additionally the company saw a 23.5 percent sales spike in November.

“With the launch of our first sport utility vehicle – the G‑Class – more than 30 years ago, we entered a segment in which we are now very successful with a total of five models. The SUVs today are an important pillar of Mercedes-Benz’s growth and have regularly posted a new sales record in every month since July 2010,” Joachim Schmidt, Mercedes’ head of sales and marketing, said.

While it may have taken the company 30 years to reach that number, luxury SUVs have really only been making a splash since the late 90′s with the introduction of the ML-Class. It may be easy to forget the rocky debut they had, but had some serous struggles making them a success. Questionable assembly and poor reliability in the not-so-distant past might still have some buyers feeling wary.

Nevertheless, it seems that suburban soccer moms and the expanding Chinese hunger for luxury cars is fuelling growth even with a shaky world economy. The R-Class boasted the biggest spurt with 50.3 percent sales growth this year, while the M-Class squeaked out 15.8 percent despite a model change.

Mercedes-Benz is still proud despite the M-Class taking last place in growth, calling it the latest star in their family. That pride comes part in parcel with the SUV having best fuel efficiency in its segment and receiving a five-star rating by the European New Car Assessment Programme for its safety.

Despite the accolades, we weren’t particularly impressed with the 2012 M-Class. It’s not to say we hated it, but the new model isn’t much to write home about either. Mild improvements thanks to direct injection and a scrapped hydraulic steering system were nice, but less than revolutionary. Mercedes-Benz isn’t falling short, but they didn’t jump ahead of the pack with this one either.

Click here to read Autoguide’s 2012 Mercedes ML350 Review

Things aren’t just “made in China” anymore, in fact the country’s surging economy is significantly supporting industries like the luxury car market. BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz and more are all aiming their crosshairs at the Chinese economy, hoping it can be the saving angel capable of salvaging growth.

That’s still likely to be the case, though not with the breakneck speed we saw a year ago when light vehicle sales grew 33 percent. China is taking steps to shush their screaming economy by restricting residential property purchases in an effort to avoid a housing bubble. Despite that, IHS Automotive and LMC expect car sales to grow between eight and 10 percent next year.

That growth will be slower thanks to restrictions and disappearing subsidies. The Chinese government removed incentives after 2010 meant to encourage new car buyers into the market while Beijing, this year, imposed a strict quota on new car purchases to cut down on traffic congestion and pollution.

Despite that impediment, Chinese car sales are still expected to grow, which is good news for luxury car makers. Demand for German luxury cars is actually eclipsing the European market, which traditionally consumes the most. With money looking tight across the globe, a 10 percent growth margin is sure to look good for any automaker.

[Source: Automotive News]